Current standard practice for responders to hazardous conditions is to wear a fully encapsulated suit when using a self contained breathing apparatus (“SCBA”) in a Hazardous Materials (“HAZMAT”) incident requiring vapor protection. In a fully encapsulated suit the responder and the SCBA are completely inside a protective suit to prevent vapor ingress that could harm or contaminate the responder's skin, lungs, etc. These suits are typically designed to meet the most stringent protection levels such as the National Fire Protection Association (“NFPA”) Level A standard.
In HAZMAT incidents where liquid and vapor personal protection are preferred or necessary, the wearer will normally use a SCBA and dress in a fully encapsulated suit, commonly referred to as a Level A ensemble design. Due to the cumbersome nature of encapsulating suits and the need to minimize the number of sealed openings, serious efforts have focused on encapsulating garment designs which could be easily donned and doffed and which had only one sealed opening. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,698 to Smith describes a one-piece rainsuit and mask which has a single zipper extending from the neck to the ankle to facilitate donning and doffing. Subsequently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,059 to Covington describes advantages of a one-piece jumpsuit having a single zipper that extends from the crotch to the neck and then further extends from the neck to the sleeve. In both of these garment designs, the fact that a zipper extends to the neck is problematic due to the difficulties in making a comfortable, liquid proof seal at the neck-end of the zipper between the garment and the wearer's neck.
One way that this problem has been overcome is by the use of a neck-dam which slides over the wearer's head in combination with a zipper elsewhere on the garment through which the garment can be donned and doffed. For example, UK Patent Application No. GB 2,079,141 to Gugen describes a protective suit that has a single zipper that extends across the front of the body coverall through which the garment is donned and doffed and with a separate neck-dam which can stretch to pass over the wearer's head, but then forms a seal around the wearer's neck.
An alternate approach to addressing the problem of sealing a zipper around a wearer's neck is to use a non-separating zipper which terminates close to, but not at the wearer's neck. UK Patent Application No. GB 2,357,235 to Duplock describes a garment in which a single, non-separating zipper extending from the chest region upward and around the back of the neck, then continuing back down to the center portion of the chest. When open, the wearer can don and doff this jumpsuit with ease, and a separate neck-dam can be used to form a liquid proof seal around the wearer's neck. A limitation of this garment design is that in a HAZMAT situation, the wearer would need to remove his/her breathing air supply in order to doff the potentially contaminated garment.
In many instances, the wearer is required to doff the Level A protective suits without removing his/her breathing air supply in order that the garment can be decontaminated or replaced. However, doffing the present Level A suits often require one's breathing air supply to be removed, thus exposing the wearer to potentially life-threatening agents.
In searching for designs to improve the liquid and vapor protection when using an SCBA, doffing the garment without compromising the respiratory protection becomes a problem. Many schemes have been attempted, but not succeeded, to eliminate the need of the wearer to remove or disconnect his supplied airline in order to doff an encapsulating suit. Removing one's airline prior to complete personal protective equipment decontamination can have serious health or life-threatening implications in certain HAZMAT incidents.
Thus, existing systems provide a limited protective solution because they force the wearer to risk potentially life-threatening exposures in order to doff a contaminated protective ensemble.
Accordingly, a need has existed for a protective ensemble having a fully encapsulating design that insures the protective garment is sealed from ingress of threats such as fire, chemical and biological assaults, and other hazardous threats, while also allowing for easy donning and doffing without compromising the wearer's supplied respiratory air system.